McKenna: It was Seattle that elected Inslee

Two legislative districts, entirely in Seattle, provided the victory margin that elected Gov. Jay Inslee and extended Democrats’ 28-year occupancy of the Washington governor’s office, according to Republican nominee and former Attorney General Rob McKenna.

In figures crunched by McKenna and his campaign chief Randy Pepple, the 36th and 43rd Districts, covering much of northwest and central Seattle, gave Inslee a combined margin of 97,600 votes as he won statewide by 94,000 votes. Seattle had a bigger voter turnout than Republican-leaning parts of the state.

Rob McKenna speaks to the crowd with the support of family and friends during the Washington Republican Party's 2012 Election Night Party. (Cliff DesPeaux for Seattlepi.com)

“It’s really not a King County problem, it’s a Seattle problem . . . his wide margin in those two districts,” McKenna said in an interview. Overall, the attorney general received just 21 percent of the vote in Washington’s largest city.

The former AG is vetting job prospects at “a handful of very good law firms” and is not giving up on politics. He will be talking to Republicans annual Roanoke Conference at Ocean Shores this weekend, and will do Lincoln Day dinners this spring.

“I will remain politically active: I started as a volunteer for candidates and causes I believe in and I will go back to that role again,” said McKenna.

It is not likely he will run for governor or U.S. Senate in 2016. Daughter Madeleine, like her father a former University of Washington student body president, has already been accepted at Georgetown and UW Law Schools. Another offspring will begin grad school soon, and another is soon to go off to college. “I’m only 50 and have lots of years ahead,” he joked.

McKenna has heard, and agrees with, the reach-out speech, broaden-the-base delivered to the Republican National Committee on Thursday night by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. (Jindal is the son of parents who immigrated from India.)

McKenna is perplexed and worried about budget decisions about to be made in the Legislature. He spent much of 2012 outlining the need to restore deep cuts made in state support for Washington’s four-year public colleges, who now get a paltry 3 percent of the state’s general fund budget. Quite predictably, he blames the Democrats.

“Yes, I’m worried about higher ed, but I’m also worried about K through 12: Speaker (Frank) Chopp and Sen. Ed Murray are talking about potentially funding education with tax increases, when our obligation is to fund education first. They’re taking it backwards.

“You’re supposed to start with funding education, and then fund everything else. But if the state meets its obligations under the (Washington Supreme Court’s) McCleary decision, and meets its obligations to and restoring higher education — we are talking in the hundreds of millions, not billions of dollars — there won’t be money left over for the Speaker’s social programs.

“The Constitution prioritizes education, the state’s people care deeply about education. We must fund education first and then go out to voters for other things.”

A few other things stick with McKenna from last year.

The Mitt Romney presidential campaign took lots of money out of the state, but put no money back in. Hence, McKenna had no help from the top of the ticket. The Republican Governors Association spent freely, but shoveled most of its money into TV commercials rather than grass-roots activism. By contrast, the Democrats’ Coordinated Campaign made Inslee its top priority in closing weeks of the campaign.

And McKenna remains perplexed that the environmental movement invested so heavily — $750,000 at least — in electing Inslee. He noted the role of such Republicans as Sen. Slade Gorton, Gov. Dan Evans, former Rep. Sid Morrison and the late Rep. Joel Pritchard in creating parks, wilderness areas, a national scenic area and America’s lone national volcanic area.

“They (environmental groups) have chosen to become a wing of the Democratic Party,” McKenna said. “They will not endorse a Republican even with environmental credentials.”

He predicted the strategy will ultimately backfire, adding: “It is not in their interests because the environmental movement is supposed to be about the environment and not partisan politics.”

What shape will McKenna’s volunteerism take? He intends to work on education reform with Stand for Children, be active in efforts to curb human trafficking, and lead a capital campaign for the Scouts’ Camp Parsons on the Olympic Peninsula. With wife, Marilyn, he will lead a capital campaign to build a special-needs playground in Bellevue.